The French fashion house recently revealed its latest artist collaboration featuring artwork by the New York-based talent, with each item in the limited release featuring a recreation of a masterpiece by one of five famous artists. Rubens’ The Tiger Hunt; da Vinci’s Mona Lisa; Girl with Dog, by Fragonard; Titian’s Mars, Venus and Cupid; and Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses.

“I wanted to choose five stories that really could communicate what we’re trying to achieve with the entire collaboration,” Koons says.

“We tried to choose works that would fully communicate the parameters of the project, by having landscape, but also dynamic paintings — Baroque paintings — and also intimate paintings about love.”

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Incorporating art from Koons’ larger Gazing Ball collection — a series of hand-painted reproductions of original works by the Old Masters — the release sees snapshots of the meticulous reproductions transposed onto select Louis Vuitton handbags and accessories including the Speedy, Keepall and the Neverfull.

“What the Gazing Ball series of paintings is really about is communicating how when you give it up to something else — when you find something of greater interest outside yourself — you’re able to achieve transcendence and have a life with greater breadth to it,” Koons says.

“I chose artists for these bags who were each giving it up to someone else. They were saying, ‘this artist I find more interesting than what I am doing.’ These artists are making reference to other artists, and they find something outside themselves that’s greater than themselves.”

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Koons says that mutual admiration is a reflection of the love and affection he hopes to convey through the pieces.

“If we want to achieve transcendence, we are able to look at even the simplest thing outside ourselves, or the most complex, and find awe and wonderment in that,” he says.

American artist Jeff Koons is the latest talent to partner with Louis Vuitton. /Louis Vuitton

In addition to allowing art fans to wear a piece of art history (each bag also contains a brief biography and portrait of the Master whose work is depicted on its exterior), the handbag collection is sure to introduce a whole new consumer to the works of these great creators.

“(It’s) really, the breadth of the canon of art history from a present-day point of view,” Koons explains of the combination.

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Each handbag features the name of the original artist emblazoned in all capital letters on the front.

Koons has also craftily reimagined the classic Louis Vuitton monogram motif to include his initials on each item. The release marks the first time the historic French house has allowed an artist to rethink or reshape the monogram.

“In working with the bag, I had the idea to also make the JK like the LV, and have them side by side,” Koons explains of the redesigned signature.

“I thought that it gave a new energy to everything. It made the bags special, and I think — just for the moment, on this special series — it expands the brand and its parameters.”

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Koons’ inflatable rabbit, a motif that has been seen several times throughout the artist’s 40-year career, will be featured in the form of a tag.

Although it’s a collection full of firsts for Louis Vuitton, it is one in a long line of highly anticipated and highly successful partnerships with international artists. Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Yayoi Kusama, Stephen Sprouse, Cindy Sherman and more have been featured.

The Masters collection won’t be the last for Vuitton and Koons, either, the two intend to further explore and celebrate the “possibilities of connection through the history of art.”

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What made this the right time for Koons to partner with Louis Vuitton?

“My primary motivation was to celebrate life. To make something special,” Koons says.

“This is the time we live in. I’ve been productive up to this point and I really still have a chance to make things I want to make. And I wanted to make this special grouping of bags with Louis Vuitton.”

•The Louis Vuitton Masters collection will be available at boutiques worldwide — including Holt Renfrew in Vancouver and the brand’s flagship boutique at 730 Burrard St. in the Hotel Vancouver — on April 28.

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